Official Trailer for the Wachowskis’ ‘Cloud Atlas’: Shorter But Still Stunning

Andy and Lana Wachowski as well as Tom Tykwer forwent starting the marketing campaign for their Cloud Atlas with a standard teaser trailer. Instead, the trio decided to release a massive six-minute preview, in order to better capture the extensive nature of their project – an adaptation of David Mitchell’s challenging tome about the interconnectivity of human existence – which shatters the divides of history, ethnicity, and culture in the process.

Warner Bros. has since unveiled a Cloud Atlas trailer that will actually screen in theaters – and although it falls far short of conveying the film’s majestic scope as well as its extended predecessor (as you would expect), it should still leave the average moviegoer intrigued to see more.

Cloud Atlas is composed of six separate storylines set in different time periods, ranging from the 19th century on through to the 1930s and ’70s, as well as a dark-shimmering future where clone technology has been (almost) perfected – going on through to a post-apocalyptic world, where scattered human cannibal tribes and a higher-advanced species struggle to live in harmony. Mitchell’s novel suggests the characters in each narrative thread are, in essence, the same souls re-incarnated throughout the ages. The film adaptation makes that idea all the more literal by having cast members tackle multiple roles.

The official Cloud Atlas trailer is visually-stunning, but paints a vague portrait of what the film is about (compared to its predecessor). Readers, if you have not already, you owe it to yourselves to watch the six-minute promo (which we have included below, for your viewing pleasure):

The Wachowskis have favored a go-big-or-go-home approach to filmmaking since the Matrix trilogy, carrying on through to their visually-bombastic live-action Speed Racer movie four years ago. Similarly, Tykwer doesn’t shy away from tackling projects that are challenging from a narrative perspective – be it Run Lola Run, his adaptation of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, or even his “Faubourg Saint-Denis” segment in Paris, je t’aime (Paris, I Love You).

As a result, the directors’ collective filmography ranges from game-changers like the original Matrix – to the polarizing Perfume – and down to a madcap project like Speed Racer (love it or hate it, it’s certainly… inspired). Cloud Atlas, for all we know, could land anywhere on that quality scale; no matter what, though, this film seems destined to go down as one of the most memorable cinematic experiences in recent times (for good or bad).

Cloud Atlas stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant. It was written for the screen and directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski as well as Tom Tykwer (be sure to check out this video featuring commentary from the three).

I havent been impressed by anything the wachowskis have done since the first matrix, this is a movie i will most certainly pass on, even though it has tom hanks who is a great actor. ever since their first matrix their work is preachy, yet crappy. not a good mix. speed racer was terrible and should never have been a live action movie. soemthing tells me cloud atlas will be the same.

but it´s something different and the story is maybe not unique(same actors playing different charact. in different centurys,there were some movies but not in that style. for the people which have enough of reboots it could be the right movie or maybe that is all too strange for them.

So how does a film directed by three people work? I can’t remember a film where that has happened before. Hopefully it won’t be a by the committee situation but more of a shared effort with one vision… I wait to see how it all turned out.

If the Wachowskis can pull this movie of successfully, it might put them in the front of the line to direct the JL movie……operative word “IF”. If it fails to capture audiences then these two are on the fast track to ending up in directing hell with M. Night.